Eclipse of the Heart
by strayphoenix
Summary: One is a princess. Two have Guardian blood. Two were chosen by chance. But there is a deep darkness present within each of the new guardians that is threatening to tear them apart before they can unite. Not your typical next generation story. ON HIATUS
1. Something Wicked This Way Comes

She was flying.

Soaring was more like it. She was shooting like a star across the sky. The breeze whipped up her ebony hair like the tail of a kite. She dared not look down, being scared of heights and all.

But that particular phobia didn't matter now. She felt another fear present. Not her own, but around her. Trepidation, terror, shocking silence. She felt it in the air. Fear.

…of her.

Suddenly, she stopped mid flight. Didn't slow, but simply stopped unnaturally fast for the speed she was going at. There was something below she had to get to. She wasn't sure what it was but it was incredibly important. Shen tilted foreword and nose dived straight down. As she breeched the clouds, she was met with an unfamiliar landscape.

Ice. An island completely covered in ice. It had a very peculiar shape…

_That's not right_ she thought through the haze of her mind. _Then where is the source of the fear?_

Suddenly, a figure appeared at her right, matching her decent evenly. A figure she had known her whole life. It should have surprised her but for some reason, it was almost expected.

Even though they must have been going fifty miles per hour, neither mother nor daughter were watching the ground and instead were watching each other. Hay Lin's eyes always full of life were hard and demanding. She shook her head slowly, a warning.

A warning that apparently didn't register in her mind. She spoke her own:

"A COLD WIND'S COMING OFF THE NORTHERN SHORE"

Suddenly and violently, she pin wheeled straight into her mother. The impact was the last thing she felt before she woke up in bed in a cold sweat.

Shen Jay sat up and flipped on the lights quickly and her eyes darted everywhere around her room. From her collection of glass dragons to the sky her mother painted on her roof. Everything seemed to be in order.

She shuddered at the eeriness of it all in the dark early morning hours and flipped the lights off again. She huddled beneath her covers.

It was suddenly freezing.

* * *

Quick as lightning and slick as steel, she tore through thick deep ocean water as fast as she could. She was power. She was fear.

She was on the hunt and nothing could get in her way.

She saw through the darkness as if there were none. As if the sun shone brightly through the waters even where she lurked. Movement above her stopped her trail and swiftly, she went swimming straight up.

Her teeth dug into human flesh before her mind completely finished comprehending what was going on. She jerked downwards, dragging her victim with her. Her prey did not fight and in her heart it disappointed her. She wanted a challenge. She wanted to prove that she was the strongest, the fastest, the predator.

"THE TIDE'S PULLING DOWN TO THE OCEAN FLOOR"

The words were spoken with her voice but they didn't come from her mouth. It was almost as if the ocean had spoken her thoughts.

_A very interesting concept…_ she thought as she dropped lower and lower. As she thought that, though, her victim kicked her in the nose and suddenly, all the air left her. She found herself drowning. She released her victim and caught a glimpse of a tattoo the person had on their ankle. It had a very peculiar shape…

_That's not right,_ her mind thought, panicked. _I can—_

"Breathe!" Aspen said the last word as she woke up in her bed.

"I'm breathing, I'm breathing" her sister mumbled from the bunk above her. "Pet the rhino and go back to sleep"

Aspen couldn't help but snort. Luzy was so funny when she sleep talked.

"All right" Aspen teased, "But where's the rhino?"

"In the paint can, stupid" she responded, shifting. Aspen felt the bed creak as she moved.

Aspen snickered and reached for the glass of water beside her bed only to find it empty.

"That's funny," she thought aloud, a habit. "I thought I filled it up when I went to bed. How weird"

She shrugged her shoulders and went to their bathroom to get some water. Then she dove back into her bed and fell asleep in her ocean of sheets to the sound of Luzy's snoring.

* * *

Chaos was her inspiration. Chaos and fire.

The city was burning. **Her** city, Meridian, was burning and she was standing in the center of towns square watching it all.

And writing poetry.

"_Kogoi trentam pot hellena saje"_

She traced the Meridian words through the air, the fire trailing behind her fingers, carving the letters out of smoke and inferno.

"BLAZING FIRES LIGHT A SOUL TO ITS CORE"

She repeated the words in English but didn't carve them out. Instead she found herself drawing something out of the smoke. Her senses were coming alive as she drew.

She felt the fire's warmth. Dangerously hot but soothingly warm to her skin.

She smelt the fire's destruction. Burning maple and roasting meat.

She tasted the smoke in the air. So thick, she could drink it.

She heard the fire singing. It's crackling and popping and roaring was music to her ears. A symphony to accompany the screams she heard around her.

She finished her fire painting and observed it closely. It was a very peculiar shape…

_That's not right_ she thought. _The music is so beautiful, why would there be screaming?_

Instinctively, both her fists clenched and miraculously, all the fire around her vanished from her sight and the screams stopped.

But the fire hadn't vanished at all.

She still felt it's warmth as she slowly unclenched her fingers. She still smelled the maple and tasted the smoke and heard its song.

And in every reflection of broken glass or puddles of god-knew-what, she saw warm red light.

Meridian was no longer on fire.

But _she_ was.

"Not what I had in mind when I suggested a candle lit evening" came a voice from behind her.

Before she could even spin around, the butt of a sword struck the back of her head and her eyes flew open.

Moze was standing in the large corridor which led to her parents' room. The Meridian sun was coming in through the archways hard and bright. She knew that she sleep walked but didn't understand how she had made it all the way to this corridor without being spotted.

"Princess Mozembeeq?" came a timid voice from behind her. She shook off her surprise quickly and put her hands on her hips. She turned around, speaking in her most royal voice.

"Yes Famew?"

"My sincerest apologies, your majesty" the Murmurer bowed. "I was unsure if I was to wake you or not"

"I wasn't asleep" Moze responded quickly, embarrassed. She hardened her features. "I was simply on my way to um, see my mother"

"Of course, your majesty" Famew replied with another bow. "Shall I alert Queen Elyon?"

"Actually, just forget about it. I-I changed my mind" Moze turned back around and headed back for her room, avoiding eye contact with Famew and staring at the floor still flustered by the situation and her dream.

Never looking around her to notice every candle in every holder along the corridor was burning bright despite the sun.

* * *

Trees were growing tall as the eye could see and as far as the eye could see.

She didn't like the city or cars or beds. Give her a sleeping bag on a hard dirt floor or hard packed ice and she'd be the happiest girl in the world. It was something one had to grow accustomed to. The daughter of adventurers would have to.

She lay down beneath a tall oak and hummed something. She wasn't sure what it was but it was very catchy and it was joyful. The canopy of trees had an opening in them that let light stream down on her. It had a very peculiar shape…

_That's not right_ she caught herself thinking as she continued humming. The song was giving her a sense of deja vu that wasn't deja vu. It wasn't feeling that she had heard it before exactly.

It was feeling that she would hear it again.

_Deja entendu. _

She sat up when she couldn't hum the next part of the song. No longer beneath the oak tree, she stood in the center of four different trees. Getting up on her feet, she kicked some dirt with her toe on a patch of parched ground.

"EARTH LIVES LESS THAN IT DID BEFORE"

It was more of a warning in the way she said it than a comment. Either way, she felt the weight of it. Almost as if the trees around her had shuddered at her words.

She bent down and touched the dead ground. She didn't know what she expected to happen when she did but she spread her fingers out and touched it anyway.

Like a rock falling in the middle of a pond, the ground seemed to ripple out and everything green around her withered until it died.

She was torn between feelings of nonchalant, desire, and amusement. Part of her expected it, part of her wanted it.

Part of her found it extremely funny.

But the wave of destruction kept flowing outwards and outwards until she could see the horizon through the stumps of dead trees.

She heard rustling and looked around. The four trees around her were black and dead but hadn't been reduced to stumps.

Three spoke to her.

_Don't make so much of me…_

_I don't remember asking you…_

_Forever love, say you love me…_

But the last tree remained silent.

Her curiosity being what it was, she walked up to it in annoyance but before she could take action, it swung one of its branches to hit her in the face. She dodged it quickly enough.

Something along the lines of _Is that the best you got?_ almost made it past her lips but another branch swung to hit her in the gut.

Everest slowly opened her eyes and looked out the window of the boat as it rode along the waves to Heatherfield Bay. Its rumbling had become her lullaby for the last seven hours and the taillights of some of the other boats looked almost like strobe lights. Why couldn't her parents drive like normal people? She let out a loud yawn.

"How much longer until Heatherfield?" she grumbled.

Her parents who had been sitting next to the captain of the transport boat broke into wide grins. "Glad to see you're finally looking foreword to our new home, Ev"

"I'm 'looking foreword' to seeing ground under my feet" she muttered. Now awake, Everest realized how queasy she was.

"Shh!" her dad whispered, "You'll wake Dole!"

She glanced at her baby brother. He was sleeping like a log.

"Don't make me go to school tomorrow!" Everest whined in a slightly lower voice. "Can't you explain that we were delayed?"

"We keep our word, Honey" her mother chimed. "We said you'd be there tomorrow so you will. Try to get some sleep"

Everest grumbled something but made no clear response. She glanced out to the lights of Heatherfield from the window of the boat.

Suddenly, the captain took a rather sharp turn to avoid an underwater hill that he could've sworn hadn't been there before in the other countless trips he'd taken to and from Heatherfield Bay.

It hadn't been.

* * *

Jenna woke up.

She stretched in her bed, her slender body arching like a cat. No, the alarm clock hadn't rung. And the sun wasn't even out. But she had somewhere to go. Someplace to be.

She took off down the hallway, her body not responding to her mind's commands. She ran like a tiger and made just as much noise as one. She stopped at her mother's door.

Up until now, she hadn't formed a conscious thought, functioning completely and totally on her instincts. But now, pushing the door open to enter the room, she thought,

_Something's wrong_

She walked to a side of the bed where her mother and younger sister slept. Tamaran looked like a spitting image of Cornelia, Jenna did not.

She caught a glimpse of her reflection in her mother's mirror on the wall. With her brown, wavy hair and sea green eyes, she didn't look like anyone in her family.

_Wait a minute_, she pondered, _that's not right_

She _was_ blonde haired and blue eyed. She _did_ look like her mother and sister.

Didn't she?

The chaos in her mind didn't seem to stop the movement of her body. She hovered above her sleeping mother and inspected her closely, almost touching noses. She literally _hovered_ above her but to her it seemed the most natural thing in the world.

Without warning, Cornelia's eyes snapped open in fear and suddenly glowed green.

_Move!_ she commanded her body but it outright refused. A beam of light shot out of her mother's eyes and Jenna's head snapped back. Literally _snapped_.

The shock of hitting the floor woke her up.

She panted heavily as the bed sheets finished falling on top of her. Her black and white cat meowed from her windowsill.

"Sorry if I scared you, Panda" she addressed her cat as she got up from the floor. She went to pet him. "I scared me too"

Panda let her pet him once and then backed away to the opposite side of the window sill, his black fur blending into the shadows while his white fur lit by the moonlight. He arched his back and hissed at her.

"What's wrong hun?"

She reached out for him to pet him again and caught sight of her hand. Her nails weren't that long. Nor was her hand that slender.

She panicked and quickly spun around to her mirror.

There she was again. Brown haired and green eyed. But she was taller, curvier, and downright older and it scared the crap out of her. Her reflection wore her pajamas and her rainbow socks but her reflection however, wore something else she did not. She tentatively stepped closer to the mirror to see. Around her neck hung an object, a very peculiar one. It was a small glass ball encompassed by a curly bit of metal.

To her surprise her reflection moved when she didn't. It removed the necklace from around her neck and held it in her palm. Then her reflection smirked at her shocked ecpression.

She delicately enclosed the glass ball with her fingers and squeezed until it cracked and blinding pink light was shooting out from the cracks of her fingers.

"AND SO THE HEART SHALL BEAT NEVERMORE"

Her reflection's voice wasn't her own. It was lower, darker, twisted.

_Stop!_ Jenna wanted to cry out in alarm. But her mouth refused to form the words and her body refused her mind's commands.

Suddenly, a face appeared behind her reflection. She didn't dare turn around to see if the person was really behind her or simply in the mirror. It was a boy. Something about him was deathly familiar but his features like her reflection's had aged. He leaned his head over her reflection's shoulders and turned his mouth to her ear to whisper.

"Don't loose the light"

Her reflection didn't react but she herself heard it right in her left ear in a voice so firm, so damn convicting, it shot shivers down her entire body at the speed of light.

"JENNA!"

For real this time, Jenna shot up in bed, throwing off her little sister who had been perched on top of her.

"Jen-na!" Tamaran exclaimed, getting back on her feet with five year old agility "Your alarm's been ringing for the last three hundred seconds!" She still didn't know how to tell time so she made up her own. It could've meant anything from two minutes to half and hour.

Jenna looked at her clock.

"Oh my Godzilla! I'm going to be late for school!" she shrieked, throwing off her covers and throwing out her sister. She also picked up Panda and tossed him out gingerly with her sister. Running to her closet, she stripped down to her panties before she even got there.

"You could've said sorry!" Tamaran reminded her from outside in a pout voice. Panda seemed to meow in agreement.

"Sorry, Tammy!" she shouted absent mindedly, fastening the belt on her jeans. She turned around and bent over to get her flip-flops when the air from the air conditioning hit her back and sent a chill up her spine.

She cautiously turned around to face her mirror, expected to see her alter ego or something out of the ordinary. But no, she was small, flat, blond haired and blue eyed with major bed head.

Her outward sigh of relief didn't quell her inward paranoia though and she resolved to throw her covers over her stand up full length mirror as she finished getting dressed and sped off for the first day of school after Christmas break.

* * *

Can't promise updates but what do you think? Worth continuing? 


	2. The Story So Far

I'msorryif some ofmy typecomesoutlike this.I'll try tofix itbut myspace bar iskind of broken . Darnit!!!

PS: WITCH isnot mine !!

* * *

Will couldn't remember the last time she took to the sky.

Over the course of years that she had been Guardian of the Veil, her flimsy butterfly wings had strengthened to the point where they could carry her own weight. It had been years since she'd gone Guardian and she missed it like crazy: the adventures, the dangers, the bonds of perilous sisterhood. But she felt like no time had passed now. Hay Lin was totally right:

Flying was the best feeling in the world.

And dream or reality, she was going to make the most of the star streaked sky.

With an extra beat in her wings and a skipped one in her heart, she shot foreword. The winds in her face making her forget to look down or even open her eyes.

She became dimly aware of others joining her flight. Not on one stationary path as she was but twisting and dancing around her like electrons to a nucleus, like ribbons in the wind.

Dragons.

She opened her eyes with delight. Sunlight yellow, fire red, pearl white, and ebony black tails whipped the air around her. She saw the pleasure, the desire, the _fire_ in their eyes as they flew. They missed the sky just as much as she did.

DON'T MAKE SOMETHING YOUR EVERYTHING, MY HEART

Alarmed, Will stopped. The dragons stopped as well and searched above and below them, curious as to the location and identification of the voice. The Keeper, however, remained deathly still, hovering a good fifty feet above the sands below.

WHAT WILL YOU HAVE WHEN IT'S GONE?

She knew that voice.

**_

* * *

Will grabbed her pillow and shoved it over her head to block out the blaring guitar music. She got plenty of it from Matt: she sure as hell didn't need from her kid and __especially _not at seven thirty in the morning.**Will grabbed her pillow and shoved it over her head to block out the blaring guitar music. She got plenty of it from Matt: she sure as hell didn't need from her kid and not at seven thirty in the morning. 

When the pillow proved unsuccessful, she let out a loud growl and threw her pillow across the room barely missing her TV.

"_Be careful, Mrs. Wilhelmina!"_ the new TV exclaimed as the pillow fell harmlessly on top of it.

Will sighed, somewhat quelling her fury. She got up and snatched up the bed sheets that had somehow made it to the floor. On her way to her bathroom, she picked up the pillow and tossed it back onto her bed.

"I've told you a bunch of times, Jules. It's just Will" she addressed the new model as she quickly ran a brush through her red cropped hair. She'd kept the haircut this long because it was really easy to manage. "And I thought I told Maxie not to let him play this early!"

"_Mrs…Will, you know that Maxie's a big ham. He loves being played"_ Jules responded sympathetically.

Will grabbed the first thing she saw in her closet and threw it on. "He takes after his owner" she growled.

Will slipped into her slippers and began her decent/stalk down the stairs to the living room. She crossed it quickly and reached the basement door where electric guitar music was coming from and proceeded to shout over the music:

"KENNY OLSEN, WHAT THE FLAMING HECK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"

The music from beyond the door stopped and Will heard shuffling. Finally the door opened to reveal a brunette teenage boy and his zebra striped guitar. Donning baggy black pants with a red flaming dragon crawling up the left leg and a matching black muscle shirt, he looked every bit the rock star. Not to mention the three inch long tussled brown hair.

"I'm playing" was all he said before he made an attempt to close the door again. Will, however, had predicting just as much and had her foot out to stick in the door. The devilish smile she knew he'd been trying to hide now crept openly unto his lips.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious" trying to act threatening and being unsuccessful by the playful glint she caught in her son's eyes. "**_Why_** are you playing at seven in the morning?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I was inspired" was his response.

"Well get _un-_inspired **_now_**" she demanded looking at her watch. "You've got to get to school now unless you want another late detention. Where's your brother?"

"You do know that 'Twin Telepathy' thing is a myth, right Mom?"

"Kenny…"

Kenny rolled his eyes and indicated behind him. Will moved to a side to see beyond him to where another red-haired boy was asleep with a book over his face. This one wore beige cargo pants with a blue and green Hawaiian shirt.

Just at that moment, the phone began to ring. Will let out a groan. This was not her morning.

"Get him up and grab your books while I grab this" she ordered. Before she turned around, she shot a glare at his Max 7 Guitar which did the equivalent of a cringe. As she turned around to leave she realized the mistake she had just made.

"Yo, Ashton!" Kenny shouted and then struck a high power chord on his guitar which sent the sleeping Ashton shooting straight up in alarm. Will rubbed her temples as the shouting began while she was halfway to the kitchen.

"What is wrong with you?!" Ashton exclaimed. "I was sleeping in case you didn't notice! You are such a—"

She heard another power chord, loud and shrill.

"Yeah, yeah, stop whining. We need to be getting to school"

Finally reaching the phone, Will picked it up without checking the number and hoped her kids would stop arguing long enough to get ready for school on their own.

"Hello?" she asked the receiver.

"_Is this the world's greatest manager?" _askedthe caller.

Will rolled her eyes but smiled. "Hey you"

The callerlaughed_. "Hi Will. Just wanted to let you know that I'll be heading into the airport in a few hours so you better start calling security"_

"And friends and family, the _works_" she replied grinning as she wrote in a pad. "Don't worry, hon. I got this"

"For goodness sakes, Mom! Get a room already!" Kenny exclaimed, emerging from the basement with Ashton and each carrying their books.

"Get going both of you! Throw in the mail on your way out!" she addressed them over her shoulder.

"Already done" Ashton commented before leaving, indicating a single envelope on the dresser near the front door. Taking the phone with her, Will picked it up. Two curves in hot pink formed an oval on the cover. It was the only identification on the envelope.

"_Will?"_

"Oh dear" she whispered.

**_

* * *

Irma mumbled something into the leather steering wheel as she felt someone's hands covering her eyes._**

"Guess who?" said a voice to her right. She smiled despite herself.

"It better not be my adorable partner with some lame excuse as to why a caramel mocha frappuccino will not be the first thing I see when I open my eyes" she quipped. She heard a shocked gasp.

"Of course not" The hands removed themselves from her eyes and she looked around the car in search of her drink. When she found none, she shot her partner a playful glare. He laughed.

"It's your adorable and _sexy_ **boyfriend** with some lame excuse as to why a caramel mocha frappuccino will not—" Irma cut him off with an elbow in the gut to which he playfully whimpered.

"Ha-larious, Xander. Now what did I miss?" she asked picking up her binoculars that sat next to her. Xander gently pressed his lips to her cheek in a 'good morning' kiss as he removed the binoculars around his own neck. She rolled her eyes but still smiled and he pointed to a door at the side of the warehouse where two women and a man were talking.

Pressing the binoculars to her eyes as Xander did, Irma inspected the figures. The two women were wearing sunglasses and long black overcoats. The man was wearing regular jeans and a tight muscle shirt.

"Are we sure that's him?" Irma asked, taking the binoculars from her eyes and searching around the crowded car for the man's warrant. After all these years, she still hadn't learned to be clean. She picked up the manila envelope hidden underneath some other papers and pulled out its contents: the warrant, a phone call list, some surveillance photos and a weird envelope. Its only identification was an aqua blue swirl on the cover.

"You got it?" Xander asked never tearing his gaze from the trio. Irma looked around the rest of the car in surprise and fear for anything else out of the ordinary but nothing looked amiss.

"Um, yeah" she said, slipping the envelope into her jacket pocket. She unlatched her holster with a forced grin and a mental note to make a phone call. She pulled out her gun.

"Let's do this"

**_

* * *

Taranee stirred as she felt movement on the bed beside her. Slowly prying her eyes open, she watched a figure get out of bed and timidly stretch. Without her glasses, she couldn't clearly see._**

"Sam?" she asked the shape, as she groped around the bedside table behind her to find her glasses. She found them and slipped them on just as the person left the room. Tara couldn't repress the sigh that escaped her lips. It was the same thing every morning.

Throwing her covers off and her robe on over her PJs, she headed out the door to the door of her bedroom to the kitchen where she knew Sam would be.

Upon entering, she spotted the dark skinned five year old girl intently eating her cereal. She didn't look up when Tara entered and she was still in her pajamas.

"Did you sleep okay, Sam?" she asked tenderly, running her fingers through the little girl's hair. The girl only nodded once, not smiling.

Taranee put her coffee to brew and came to sit across from her niece. She was so quiet, she reminded Taranee of herself.

"Did the nightmares go away when you came to bed?"

Again, the child didn't speak. She took a sip of her orange juice and never looked Taranee in the face. Another typical morning.

"Sam?" she tried again. Being a psychologist, she worked with troubled children all week long. It truly frustrated Dr. Cook that she could barely breach the defenses of her own niece.

She nodded again. Neither speaking nor looking up, she got up from her seat and went to her room to get her book bag and change her clothes. Taranee let out another sigh, wondering if her Sam would ever speak again.

She got up again and grabbed her coffee and the newspaper to take to work for her secretary. As she removed it from the counter to take to the kitchen table, an envelope slipped out from within its pages. With a curious glance, she placed the paper on the table and picked up the envelope. On the cover was a triangle in orange.

Hoping that Sam would take a while getting ready, she opened the envelope and read its contents, never letting her guard down for the return of the girl.

She read the letter through twice and then quickly grabbed for the phone and began dialing. Just at the moment it began ringing, however, Sam appeared in the hallway dressed for school with her books. She walked avoiding Taranee's eye contact and headed to the front door.

Taranee checked the kitchen clock and noted that if they were going to avoid the morning traffic they would have to leave right then. With some dismay, she shut the phone off and got up to get her keys. Just because Sam didn't speak didn't mean she wouldn't understand what she had to tell Will.

"You ready, sweetie?" Taranee asked with a small smile. Without comment or recognition, Sam opened the door and began walking to the stairs.

Taranee fingered the envelope she had slipped in her purse and as she followed her niece out.

Maybe not _that_ typical of a morning.

**_

* * *

"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Tamaran ran into her mother's room, shouting like a banshee. She leapt on the sleeping Cornelia and she jumped awake._**

"Tammy!" Cornelia exclaimed sitting up and clutching her chest, "Jeez, don't do that!" She attempted to calm her breathing. "My God, you scared the life half out of me!"

"Don't use God's name in vain" Tammy chided earnestly. "Mrs. Lam says God said so"

Cornelia couldn't help but smile at her littlest girl as she reclaimed her cool. She messed up her hair and apologized. "All right, all right, 'My _gosh_'"

"Mommy, Jenna says she's going to eat me" the little girl said, hugging her mother for protection and glancing out the door fearfully.

"Now why would Jenna want to eat you?" her mother responded giving her a hug. "I'm sure you taste awful" she added jokingly.

"No, I taste super sweet" she responded, thinking her mother was serious, "But she says I lost her English paper"

Almost on queue, Jenna came into the room. She had a death glare painted on her face. "Mom" she addressed, gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath, "That demon you brought into the world lost my English paper"

"I did not!" Tamaran retorted. "I never even saw it!"

Cornelia tried not to let her daughters see her humor. "Did you check your bag?"

"Yes"

"Your desk?"

"Yes"

"The couch?"

"Yes. And both recliners"

"Panda's stash?"

Jenna's face softened for a moment in thought. Without another word, she turned around and ran to her cat's 'stash' located under the sink of the guest bathroom. Cornelia rolled her eyes as she stepped out of bed. Napoleon's grandson ate dog biscuits, sniffed fire hydrants and kept a stash of things. The animal thought he was a dog.

Just then the doorbell rang and Jenna called from the bathroom, "Mom, could you get that? I'm practically digging to China under all this stuff **_and_** I'm super late!"

Cornelia sighed and shrugged her bathrobe on, Tamaran now playing with her teddy bear on her bed. She descended the stairs of her same penthouse and approached the door.

"Who is it?" she asked as she neared.

"It's Lee," said the voice from behind the door. Cornelia smiled. Lee was the boy that lived in the apartment underneath them and had been Jenna's best friend since he'd moved in when Jenna was five.

_Well, maybe 'best friend' wasn't the correct terminology _Cornelia mused. _More like 'partner in crime'_

Cornelia remembered when the pair had first met. Jenna was as talkative as Tamaran was now and Lee barely spoke three words at a time. Lee was helping his parents move in when she sent Jenna to go see if they needed anything from the market as the two of them were heading to one at the time.

She'd introduced herself as 'Jenna and not Jenny' as she had a few problems with her new teachers saying her name. Lee had introduced him self shyly as Leonardo adding that everybody called him 'Leo'.

The memory of Jenna's response always made her laugh. "Now why would I want to call you what everybody else calls you? How boring! How about I call you Lee?"

The boy had been utterly surprised at her response and blushed. Jenna kept on, however, not noticing and offered that he could come up with a nickname for her too since she was getting tired of people calling her 'Jenna'.

He'd offered to call her 'Jen' then. Jenna, however, took him to mean it all together as 'Jenthen' and the nicknames stuck since then.

Cornelia opened the door where the roguish boy stood, backpack slung over shoulder. The red, white and green cap that covered his short amber hair read 'Life's too short not to be Italian'

"Good morning, Mrs. Hale" he said politely but not exactly calmly. "Jenthen ready yet? It's kind of late…"

"Sorry, Lee" Cornelia apologized, "She's seemed to have lost her English paper"

"Ok, now I'm really panicking!" Jenna exclaimed coming to the door with her messenger bag over one shoulder. "Where else could it be?"

"How about here?" Lee suggested innocently handing her a folder. Jenna's eyes widened as she opened the folder and flipped through its contents. "You wanted me to proof read it for you on the bus yesterday, remember?" he continued.

Jenna sighed, snapped the folder shut, and gave him a quick hug. "Great. Now I have no other option but to marry you"

Lee laughed at her comment. Cornelia noted with a knowing smile that it was that laugh that boys do to keep from turning the color of a fire hydrant and babbling like idiots.

"Bye Mom!" she said, giving Cornelia a kiss on the cheek as she grabbed Lee and dragged him out the door. As the two rushed down the stairs to avoid the elevator wait, Cornelia monitored their conversation.

"Well, we totally missed the bus" Jenna was saying. "How fast can you run?"

"If you want me to breathe ever again, let's not"

"What else can you think of?"

"I vote we sprout wings and fly" he joked.

"Nice idea, Spock. Except that's _impossible…_" The door to the stairwell just closed and their conversation was lost. Cornelia smiled to herself, thinking of the irony of her daughter's words. Five human beings did fly once upon a time after all.

As she re-entered the house, she spotted Panda walking to the guest bathroom with papers in his mouth.

"Panda!" she scolded. The cat realized he had been compromised and made a break for the bathroom with the envelopes still in his mouth. Cornelia sighed and followed him into the bathroom. Panda was sitting protectively on top of his stuff and hissed at Cornelia when she tried to reach for the envelopes.

"Tammy!" she called up the stairs. "Call Panda, please!"

"Come to mommy, Panda!" she heard Tamaran call. She shook a box "Come get biscuits!"

At the sound of the box, Panda instantly leapt off the pile and flew out the door. Cornelia laughed and set herself down on the floor next to the stash as she pulled out the envelopes from the top of the pile.

The first one was merely a bill from her art gallery for a cocktail party they'd had last month. The second envelope was a child support check. Cornelia frowned at this one and stuffed it into the pocket of her robe messily. She opened the third envelope without looking at the cover of it absentmindedly. The first line brought her back to Earth rather quickly.

_To Cornelia Hale-Prant,_

_Guardian of Earth,_

_Of the 34th Generation of Guardians of the Veil_

She looked at the envelope's cover. It had a green circle with a dot in the center. Her eyes flew over the remaining contents of the letter and she got up from the floor. She passed Tamaran and Panda playing at the foot of the stairs and went up to her office. From a locked desk drawer she pulled out what appeared to be an ordinary mirror and held it up to her face level.

"Show me the queen of Meridian" she whispered. It glowed white.

**_

* * *

Hay Lin was roused from her dream by an overpowering need to pee._**

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and noticed that it was day already as the sunlight streaked mercilessly in through a window. She made an attempt to get up when the baby in her uterus pushed her bladder and she had to lie back down. She smiled despite herself. She felt like a beached whale.

"Shenny!" she called out the open door. "Shenny, can you help me up, honey?"

Hay Lin watched as Shen Jay reluctantly entered the room, with her backpack already swung over her shoulder.

"Mom, I'm going to miss the bus for school" she said with the smallest hints of a whine in her voice as she approached her mom. Hay Lin beamed at her daughter's timid response.

"Nonsense! It takes two minutes to help me up and if worse comes to worse, I can drive you to school in a jiffy!" Hay Lin was focusing on Shen Jay's arms and pulling herself without spilling her bladder so didn't notice Shen's fearful look.

"No! I mean…you don't have to drive me to school. I'll just ask, you know, Aspen to pick me up on the way" she said hurriedly. She gave her mother a tug and she managed to scoot Hay Lin foreword in her seat a few inches.

"Ouch! Careful with the baby!" Hay Lin exclaimed with a laugh. Her daughter's skinny arms were stronger than they looked. "You don't want your brother or sister here that badly, do you?"

This time Hay Lin looked up at Shen Jay's face and saw the embarrassment there, her eyes were avoiding her own. "I'm so sorry, mom. I'm just…in a hurry. I don't want you to—"

"Shenny" Hay Lin spoke calmer now, still smiling as she stroked her daughter's cheek. "I was just fooling around. I didn't mean it" Shen was even more embarrassed now but she tried not to show it as she slowly helped her mother up. Hay Lin couldn't believe how much of a contrast the shy, timid little girl was to her own creative and energetic self.

Finally, Hay Lin found her feet and lifted herself up the rest of the way with'oof'. "Well, you can run off to school now. I don't think I could fit behind the steering wheel even if I did want to drive you" she commented grinning. Hey Lin knew full well that her grin was contagious and evoked a little curl in one of the corners of her daughter's lips.

"Bye mom" she whispered, giving her mother a kiss that Hay Lin returned eagerly with an additional hug. "Have fun at school!"

Shen Jay exited the room without further comment as Hay Lin stumbled quickly to the bathroom. Upon lowering her PJ's and sitting down to pee, she noticed an envelope on top of her toilet paper. On the cover was a silver swirl and nothing else.

A wave of excitement rushed over her. Whether it was the hormones or not, she wasn't sure but she ripped into the envelope giddily and read through the letter. Her smile never wavering she reached for the newly installed bathroom phone. Almost as if it read her mind, the phone rang as she held it. The caller ID read 'Irma Lair'.

"Irma! Oh my gosh! Did you get the news?" she babbled speedily into the phone before Irma could get in anything.

"_Nice to hear from you too"_ Irma quipped, considerable less hyper than her friend but still cheerful. _"Yeah, I got an envelope too"_

"Isn't it exciting?" Hay Lin squealed. She hadn't felt so giddy since…well, yesterday. It was definitely the hormones. "A real ceremony! It's been so long since we've been to Candracar…"

"_Yeah, I know"_ Irma replied. A little wistfulness had crept into her voice. _"I'd really thought it was over"_

"We need to get in touch with the others right away" she told Irma. Then she added for a second time, "I real ceremony! Grandma told me they hadn't had a chance for one in centuries…"

"_Don't go into labor on me, girl"_ Irma laughed. _"I'll try to get in touch with Will and Tara if you'll try Cornelia"_

"No problem! See you later!" Hay Lin hung up the phone, her smile never wavering. She picked up the letter again.

_Here it goes again_

* * *

Just an insight into what's been happening with WITCH. Also, in case you couldn't catch it, my story takes place in the comics universe. However, since so much time has passed, I've taken some creative liberties and made it similar to the series universe. Any proir history you need to know to get the story, I'll add for the benefit of series fans. :)

Can't wait for the ceremony? Neither can I which is why chapter 3 is already in the works! With spring break, I might post sooner than usual :) Here's a sneak peek.

"_And furthermore, I demand that you convince mom to let me join parliament the second I turn eighteen"_

"_Moze! You just turned thirteen!"_

"_I'm simply letting you know ahead of time so you have a full five years to grovel" she said mischievously. Caleb sighed._

"_Alright, alright. Will you untie yourself from the bedpost and come to breakfast **now?**"_

"_No"_


End file.
